Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for He chose us in advance, and He makes everything work out according to His plan.
Ephesians 1:11 NLT
Why do I even matter to God? Why am I saved? Why does He nurture me, heal me, love me, provide for me? Is it so that I have the means and energy to go off and pursue my life as I see fit? Or is it because my Father has a plan and I have a part to play?
We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28 HCSB
John’s posts of late have really thrown new light on what it means to live life as a believer born again from above. What is my destiny really? I am experiencing the fear of God as never before as I ponder that question. My destiny outside of His plan and His purpose is destruction. Terrifying!
Look at King Saul, a Biblical byword if ever there was one. He literally had everything going for him – he was handsome, tall, anointed, chosen, and loved by his people. This wasn’t good enough for Saul. He wanted to answer to no man (Samuel) and no God (disobeyed God regarding Amalek and his people, 1 Sam. 15). And so he lost everything—his crown, his health, his anointing, his children, his people’s love, his life and his very legacy.
Saul’s destiny went from being God’s own choice for Israel’s king, to the mental case obsessed with killing a local shepherd and musician – who then became king. That’s one big bucket of salt poured in Saul’s wound! Saul serves as a warning. That’s his great legacy. He’s the Biblical equivalent of an after-school special. How wretched and pitiful. How utterly terrifying!
I don’t want to miss my destiny. And I certainly don’t want to exchange God’s anointed calling on my life for a horror story that makes Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath look like a triumphant tale of abundant blessing. I want God’s destiny for me. I want my life to have the highest calling possible: His plan and His purpose. I want an eternal legacy, not a fleeting human one.
No, God has not rejected and disowned His people [whose destiny] He had marked out and appointed and foreknown from the beginning. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?
Lord, they have killed Your prophets; they have demolished Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.
But what is God’s reply to him? I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal!
Romans 11:2-4 Amplified
God’s plan will not be thwarted and His purpose cannot be hijacked, not by men and not by angels. Either I serve His purpose as a vessel of Jesus Christ and receive the inheritance of God’s chosen, or I serve His purpose as a warning, a byword, a walking tribulation used to purify the truly faithful.
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I had a seizure in my throat (I don’t know if this is a correct english expression or not) all along reading this.
Thank you!